ON THE GRASSHOPPER AND THE CRICKET JOHN KEATS hdwallpapersnew.net

OBJECTIVES To develop knowledge about the poet and the poem. To understand the major themes and linguistic features of the poem. To create an awareness of the beauty, glory and grandeur of nature. hdwallpapersnew.net

JOHN KEATS Frances and Jennings Keats. Born on October 31, 1795 to Thomas and Frances and Jennings Keats. One of the key figures in the second generation of the Romantic Movement in English literature. The poetry of Keats is characterised by sensual imagery, most notably in the series of odes.

The poem On the Grasshopper and the Cricket was composed in the December of 1816 when the poet was twenty one years of age. Major poems : An Imitation of Spenser, Ode to Psyche, The Eve of St. Agnes, La Belle Dame Sans Merci, Hyperion, Lamia, Isabella, Ode on a Grecian Urn’, ‘Ode to a Nightingale’, ‘Ode to Autumn.

POEM The Poetry of earth is never dead: When all the birds are faint with the hot sun,     And hide in cooling trees, a voice will run     From hedge to hedge about the new-mown mead;     That is the Grasshopper’s—he takes the lead       In summer luxury,—he has never done     With his delights; for when tired out with fun     He rests at ease beneath some pleasant weed.     The poetry of earth is ceasing never:     On a lone winter evening, when the frost      Has wrought a silence, from the stove there shrills     The Cricket’s song, in warmth increasing ever,     And seems to one in drowsiness half lost,     The Grasshopper’s among some grassy hills.

SUMMARY The poem portrays Keats’ love of nature and its beauty. The poet draws the picture of two seasons - the summer and the winter. In both the seasons there are two little almost invisible singers who keep the scene alive with their melodious singing. In summer, the grasshopper runs from hedge to hedge and leads the ‘summer’s luxury’. In winter the song of the cricket creates warmth in a climate which is generally dull and cool.

FORM OF THE POEM Sonnet- poem of fourteen lines that follows a strict rhyme scheme  and specific structure.  It is written in iambic pentameter and can be divided into an octet(8 lines) and a sestet(6 lines). The first half of the octet deals with the imageries of summer while the second half deals with the grasshopper. The first half of the sestet deals with the winter and the second half deals with the cricket.

Linguistic features Personification- the attribution of a personal nature or human characteristics to something non-human, or the representation of an abstract quality in human form. Eg. “The poetry of earth is never dead”. Poetry cannot be dead in the sense that humans die. “the frost has wrought a silence.”

Transferred epithet - a figure of speech in which an epithet (or adjective) grammatically qualifies a noun other than the person or thing it is actually describing. “On a lone winter evening”-Winter stands for old age, when man turns to be weak, gloomy and lonely. To be precise it is not the season but the human onlooker who feels lonely.

STANZA WISE SUMMARY Lines 1-8 During a very hot summer day, all the birds take rest under shady trees. They are tired and stop their twittering and singing because of the heat of the sun. Yet the music of the earth does not come to a halt. The grasshopper goes on moving from one hedge to another and singing merrily to continue with the music of the earth. It continues to sing delighting until he is satisfied. It takes rest under some shady weed when tired out with fun.

Lines 9-14 In the bitterly cold winter evening, all living creatures have taken shelter for rest and an atmosphere of loneliness and silence prevails. A man is sitting beside the stove hulled by the warmth of the fire and is half asleep. In this semi-conscious state, he hears the cricket's high pitched notes drifting about in the air and mistakes it for the merry notes of the grasshopper singing gleefully among the hills on a warm mid-summer day.

THEMES Eternity of nature Nature is always alive in its own beauty. Nature is filled with poetry in all seasons. Even in the worst climate too, nature is filled with the song of its creatures. There is always someone to create some music and joy. The poet asserts that no matter what the season is, whether it is the summer or the winter, the music and the poetry of the nature is never dead.

Flow of life The poet presents his belief in the continuity of the cycle of seasons and life. What the grasshopper starts in summer is carried on by the cricket throughout the long winter till the grasshopper takes over again with the re-emergence of summer. In this manner, life is also a continuous process. There is always a living force working in the nature.

Questions What is the theme of the poem? Poetry and music in nature do not perish. Even in the worst climate too, nature is filled with the songs of its creatures. When does a grasshopper sing? A grasshopper sings on a hot summer day. When the birds hide in cool shades, the grasshopper runs from hedge to hedge creating a sound which is called the nature’s poetry by the poet.

In what atmosphere, according to Keats, does one hear a cricket’s song? The cricket’s song is heard in winter when it is very cold and quiet. What is the structure of the poem? The poem is a sonnet which consists of an octave and a sestet. Which word in stanza two is opposite in meaning to ‘the frost’? The word is ‘warmth’.

BIBLIOGRAPHY OM.M. Khond. “On the Grasshopper and the Cricket”. http://nvseng8.weebly.com/on-the-grasshopper-and.html Monica Roychowdhury. “On The Grasshopper and The Cricket Summary and Analysis.” https://beamingnotes.com/2014/10/15/on-the-grasshopper-and-the-cricket-summary-and-analysis/

ANITTA GEORGE ST. THOMAS COLLEGE OF TEACHER EDUCATION, PALA.